The latest version of WordPress just hit the 20 million download milestone this afternoon, according to the WordPress.org download counter.

It marks the third consecutive major release of WordPress that’s topped 20 million downloads as 3.2 and 3.3 also surpassed the 20 million mark — keeping WordPress at the top of the list in terms of the most downloaded content management system on the web.

WordPress 3.4 was actually downloaded more than 28 million times before 3.5 came along, so it’ll be interesting to see if the latest version tops that, although there’s already a beta of 3.6 released.  WordPress 3.6 Beta 3 was released on May 11.

That’s a big month for WordPress, despite some negative publicity of late coming from botnet attacks hitting sites with poorly selected passwords for WordPress users and other content management systems where admin passwords aren’t secure.

Over the past month, WordPress saw more than 100,000 downloads a day and more than 3 million downloads.

WordPress release dates and posts like this serve as a good reminder to mix up your passwords and avoid using easy to guess usernames such as “admin.” In fact, by default your username is the same name WordPress pulls as your byline/author name, so to keep your username secure be sure to use a WordPress “nickname” that’s different from your actual WordPress username to make your user account that much trickier to hack.

To make sure your passwords is secure, be sure to use passwords that are:

• Long – make sure they’re at least eight or more characters.
• Complex – Include letters (capital and lower case), punctuation, symbols and numbers.
• Variation – Keep your passwords effective by changing them every 90 days or so.
• Variety – Don’t use the same password for everything.

Keep an eye out for the next release of WordPress on the WordPress.org blog, and be sure to back up your WordPress installation before upgrading.

Meadows Interactive is proud to take part in Small Business Saturday, and we’re encouraging everyone to Shop Small on Nov. 24.

But let’s not stop there. Throughout the holiday season we encourage residents of the Central Coast and beyond to support their neighborhood markets and local businesses.

Let’s not only make Nov. 24 a big day for local businesses, let’s make the rest of 2012 a year to remember for the small businesses in our own backyard.

So shop small this fall … and winter!

Good photography.

That’s why we have our own photos of the Central Coast plastered all over our site, because where we’re from plays a critical role in our business.

Our company was founded by a Central Coast native, and is powered by a team of local developers and designers from right here in San Luis Obispo County (not outsourced overseas).

And we feel it’s paramount that our website (and our client sites) reflects where we’re from, and the community we serve.

The same should be said for your local business, which is why we’re adamant about getting original, local, branded photos and imagery for all of our client websites.

We don’t settle for stock images, or take the easy way out by using PhotoShop to completely alter our banner images in hopes of fitting in with the latest marketing trend … which is what we’ve been seeing from small and even billion-dollar companies of late (see: GoDaddy):

The above screenshot was from GoDaddy’s website a couple days ago.

The following screenshot was taken today, with the same headshot of spokeswoman and racing star Danica Patrick, flaunting a pink jersey PhotoShopped over her old green fire suit.

This is a technique GoDaddy has used countless times on its homepage, which obviously converts very well considering they’ve kept the messaging the same for much of the year:

While we applaud and are passionate ourselves about cause marketing at Meadows Interactive, we also question the execution and why a billion-dollar company like GoDaddy couldn’t bother changing its messaging or even the original creative, other than painting the suit pink in PhotoShop.

Then again, that’s why we’re still a hometown marketing and web design agency on the Central Coast, and GoDaddy is a billion-dollar juggernaut in the desert … and we plan to keep it that way.

Founder Brian Milne spoke along with Collaboration’s Kaitlin King and moderator Owen Main about social media marketing and networking for both businesses and job seekers.

It was an candid discussion that closed with the trio breaking down Main’s LinkedIn and Facebook profiles, highlighting what could be done better and what he’s already doing well in the social media space.

- Photo by Meadows Interactive’s B.Milne

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Work. School. Friends. Family … and kids.

We’ve all got a lot going on in our lives, and I haven’t even mentioned our online worlds yet.

Twitter. Facebook. Google Plus. LinkedIn … and Pinterest.

The list is always growing, and as our offline lives get busier and online worlds more cluttered, our blogs are getting more and more neglected.

And while it’s great spending time learning everything the above social sites have to offer, let’s not forget the importance of our own blogs, and the significance of providing readers with quality content. After all, without quality posts, you’ll be slow to take your blog to the next level and will have little original content to push out to your followers. And, in the end, isn’t that what it’s all about? Generating exposure, traffic, leads and potential customers or partners?

That said, here are 10 ways I’ve been able to carve out more blogging time of late – despite running dozens of sites and having our third child in five years this past April.

Interested in learning more? Contact us today or call (805) 703-3372 for a free consultation.

But if you are a member of Survey Gizmo, you probably noticed what happened.

SurveyGizmo.com, a site that we use from time to time for advanced surveys, went down over the weekend because the auto-billing on its credit card used to renew its domain failed.

According to CEO Christian Vanek: “Our domain registrar then expired our domain and immediately replaced it with an advertisement for their own website.  As far as we can tell there was no notification from the company that that this was going to happen.  They are normally a great registrar, so we assume this was a technical problem.”

While we applaud how Survey Gizmo handled the issue, getting in front of the screwup and being transparent with its customers, this should have never happened. Websites of this size should register their domain at least five years out, and there’s no excuse for having a site’s registration fail and auto-renew.

Even if it was because of a credit card that had been stolen and had been since canceled. That’s exactly why you register your domain years out, because credit card numbers and expiration dates change all the time whenever you get a new card or lose one.

Domain hiccups have happened to everyone in this business. Heck, I’ve lost some really good domains over the years, but for a company of that size, it’s inexcusable to not spend a couple hundred dollars on pushing your domain registration out a few more years … and there’s a takeaway here for all of us.

Log in to your registrar right now and renew your domain for at least another couple years before it becomes too late and you have to learn this lesson the hard way.

“This issue will not have an opportunity to resurface for a long time,” Vanek said in an email to users. “However, in ten years when our domain is up for renewal again, I can assure you that we will not have a repeat of this problem.”

Interested in learning more? Contact us today or call (805) 703-3372 for a free consultation.

If you’re a local business looking to grow, Wednesday’s Grow Your Business Expo is the place to be.

The expo is free for local businesses and runs from 4-7 p.m. on Wed., April 11, at the Mid-State Fair Events Center in Paso Robles(directions below).

Meadows Interactive will be on hand for the event, talking to local businesses about web design and how email, social media and search engine optimization can help generate more traffic, customers and sales. Mobile-optimized websites and applications will also be a major part of the discussion this week.

One of the largest business expos on the Central Coast, this Paso Robles Chamber event is not only a great place to learn how you can grow your business both online and off, but it’s also a great networking opportunity with some 100 businesses expected to attend.

If you’re interested in discussing how online marketing can benefit your business, contact us ASAP to set up a time to talk during or after the show and receive 50% OFF all MI services.

And if you can’t make the event, we still want to hear from you. We’re local, so drop us a line, and we’ll set something up.

We’ll also be blogging about the show and sharing the best online marketing resources the event has to offer, so be sure to check back at MeadowsInteractive.com after the event.

Enjoy the show!

A look at why PPC costs are rising each year.

If you’ve run PPC (pay per click) ad campaigns for an extended period of time using a service like Google Adwords, you’ve probably noticed an increase in the average cost per click for many search ads over the past couple years.

Which brought up a great question by a colleague of mine recently: “How much do PPC (pay per click) costs typically increase year over year?”

Unfortunately, even the big search marketing outfits haven’t provided a real go-to source that addresses this topic. I think a big part of it is they don’t want to scare off clients by telling them they can expect to pay 8-12% more on their PPC campaigns if they want to continue to compete each year.

From what I’ve seen the past couple years, the numbers jump from 5-12% in terms of average cost per click. So there’s no question CPC costs are trending above inflation. Google has confirmed that much.

And with companies continuing to spend more on online ads each year — search marketing is growing at a 16% clip — CPC continues to grow due to factors that are outside Google’s control.

For example, when a newly funded company comes into the space, and they want to reach the top spot for a low-quality-score keyword, they have to throw a lot more money at it than proven companies with a quality score/low bid. But to get to No. 1 quicker, new companies are more likely to skip the organic route and big as high as they need to knock out the established brands that are tightening their belts years into the business.

We see the buy-traffic-first approach all the time, and it drives up the average CPC substantially. And with more and more online competition each year, it’s a battle we’re already fighting on the PPC front.  

So you can see why the average CPC for Google PPC continues to grow: In Q3 of 2011, average CPC increased 5% over Q3 in 2010. In Q2, it was 12% over Q2 2010. In Q1, it was up 6%.

So I think the 8% number I frequently point to is pretty solid if that’s what you wanted to project over the next couple years. The way search marketing is growing, even if Bing-Yahoo were to do something major in 2012-13, I don’t see those numbers taking a hit at all.

All of which makes organic content and online marketing efforts that much more important moving forward. Blogging, social media and email marketing are as crucial to your overall marketing strategy as ever.

Build out those online marketing strategies now, and you’ll have no problem growing your business and remaining competitive in the online marketing space … no matter how out of hand PPC big inflation becomes in the future.

Interested in learning more? Contact us today or call (805) 703-3372 for a free consultation.

We’ve been spending more and more time providing mobile app development and mobile-optimized websites for San Luis Obispo County-area businesses and content producers over the past couple years.

Our latest mobile app has just been launched as a public beta in the Android Marketplace.

If you like the great outdoors, and have an Android-enabled phone, this is the app for you. …

Hikes in Central California is a mobile hiking and trail guide for your pocket.

This content-rich app has all of the best hikes from Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, plus many more as we continue to update it weekly.

Trail breakdowns contain trail descriptions, milestones, photographs and maps of the best Central Coast hikes.

Download the app or contact us today for a free consultation and estimate on a mobile app for your company or website.